Reading list

Books I have read, by year completed.

2020

Fall of Hyperion, Dan Simmons

The stories set up in the first book were so intriguing, it was probably impossible for this book to be anything but a disappointment. I would highly recommend reading Hyperion and then leaving the rest to wonder.

Tropic of Capricorn, Henry Miller

Alternates in a wandering stream of consciousness between character vignettes and navel gazing. There are some inspired moments in this book but on the whole it comes across as misogynistic and vain.

How Everything Can Collapse, Pablo Servigne & Raphaƫl Stevens, translated from French by Andrew Brown

I am aware, concerned and somewhat active with regards to climate change, that we are approaching or perhaps past a point of no return. This book has persuaded me that there are other such calamitous limits - loss of biodiversity, peak phosphorous and oil, ocean acidification, economic collapse and so on. The presence of multiple factors, which are all interdependent, combined with the nature of such systems to fail suddenly rather than gradually, leads to the conclusion that collapse is inevitable and near. A transition will probably not be possible. This sounds terrible, but the authors are trying to look forward in a realistic and positive direction. Our ways of life will change, but they could be for the better if we start acting to build local and community resilience now.